The BBC featured a Worklife 101 article in June entitled ‘What the Dutch can teach the world about remote work’. Five months later, I think it important to draw attention to it again. The article reflects on a refreshing and modern outlook that the Netherlands has already about remote working. This isn’t anything new for the Dutch. Whilst most of the world lags behind, the Netherlands (and following behind Finland), are a shining beacon of embracing remote working, making it work for both employers and employees. The Dutch has the right combination of high-speed internet access in homes, technology, culture and approach to make remote working successful. They understand the digital and social framework needed to support home working and make it sustainable in a post Covid-19 world.

Most significantly and the lynch pin of success, is that employers place a lot of trust in employees; culturally they are judged on what they deliver and not hours sat at their desk. This does not surprise me as my impression of the Dutch, having been there on many occasions, is that they are a pragmatic, sensible, responsible, equitable nation. Taking responsibility for your own actions and looking after each other are built-in traits of being Dutch, traits which I certainly admire and which holds them in good stead though good times and bad.

Employers in the UK & Ireland could look toward The Netherlands for best practice ways to implement home working policies and setting up virtual, remote offices. The Dutch tried and tested framework of a smart combination of working from home and meeting in real life will be emerging more in other countries. With regard to regulations, Dutch employers are motivated to make sure that their employees have healthy working conditions at home as The Netherlands have stringent sick pay legislation. According to information provided by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, RVO | Statistics Netherlands, CBS

‘If you own a company in the Netherlands and one of your employees becomes ill, you are required to pay at least 70% of their last earned wages. You are obliged to do this for a maximum period of two years.’

As we know it costs to put in control measures to look after employees, however sickness, absence and turnover can easily cost even more. As a few final takeaways, here are a few quotes from the original article - well worth the read in full.

Aukje Nauta, an organisational psychology professor at the University of Leiden, who is researching how companies can enhance individuals in a dynamic work context, believes that employers could look toward the Netherlands for inspiration as they consider how best to implement remote-work policies and set up virtual offices. “Values such as democracy and participation are deeply rooted in the Dutch working culture, so managers place more trust in their workers than elsewhere in the world,” she says. “For example, ING bank [an influential Dutch company based in Amsterdam] now has a policy on unlimited holidays implemented for pilot groups of workers, who can take as much holiday as they want as long as their tasks do not suffer. Employers elsewhere are now learning that employees can be trusted to work from home, and I believe that in post-corona[virus] times, smart combinations of working from home and meeting in real life will emerge more and more worldwide.”

There are also broader social contexts that enable remote work to flourish in the Netherlands.

“Physical infrastructure is well developed, and public and commercial remote-working facilities are plentiful,” says Bart Götte, a business futurist and psychologist based in Amersfoort. “Public libraries have reinvented themselves as massive and comfortable modern working spaces, and there are an enormous number of small, quality coffee shops that service the remote workforce. Employers in the Netherlands have also seized the opportunity to cut costs and become more productive – they need less square metres of expensive office space…”

We are in the midst of a turbulent learning curve whilst Covid-19 continues to impact business in the UK and Ireland. Now is the time to rethink outdated policies, procedures and introduce wellbeing initiatives, as well as reflect on the Dutch experience customs and values. The Dutch success at least gives us confidence that WHF can be a long-term solution to keeping our economies and entrepreneurism buoyant as well as a facilitator for a healthier work-life balance.

As The Netherlands displays a combination of attuned infrastructure, investment in a digital future and culture of trust that makes it an aspirational archetype of a well-oiled remote world, companies in other countries still have much to understand and adapt to as Covid-19 ushers in a less office-based future.